A Hollywood movie producer with credits on “Joker” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” was charged this week with running a $100 million Ponzi scheme that ensnared several Illinois investors, the Department of Justice announced.
Jason Cloth, 60, of Beverly Hills, was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles and appeared in court there on seven counts of wire fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois. The indictment, filed in Illinois, was unsealed Tuesday.
Cloth operated Canada-based Creative Wealth Media Finance Corp. and, for the past seven years, solicited clients, including an investment adviser in Illinois, to invest in film and entertainment projects, prosecutors say.
Cloth got more than $100 million from the Illinois investment adviser, the adviser’s clients and other investors based on false representations, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say he actually used the money for a real estate project in Canada and other personal purposes, according to the indictment.
Cloth is accused of engaging in a Ponzi scheme by using some investor funds to repay prior investors, prosecutors say. The indictment seeks forfeiture of $12.25 million from Cloth.
Cloth is listed as the executive producer of the 2019 film “Joker,” the 2022 film “Babylon” and the 2021 film “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” according to his IMDb profile.
It was not immediately clear who was representing Cloth in the case.
Cloth is a defendant in an ongoing 2024 class action lawsuit filed in Cook County alleging he owes Chicago-area investors $180 million in the same alleged Ponzi scheme. Lawyers for the plaintiffs in that case say the scheme allowed Cloth to get film credits and continue a “lavish lifestyle.”
Lawyers in that case claim that Ponzi scheme also included investments in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” as well as in the film “Monkey Man.”
Both films were profitable, that lawsuit claims, but Cloth is accused of repaying only some investors.